What's two months between friends, really?
So, I'm decidedly bad at this whole blogging thing...probably because only a couple of people read it, and I'm in contact with them either face to face or over aim/ iChat fairly often anyway.
Sooo...I just finished the first two books in Elizabeth Haydon's "Symphony of Ages" trilogy (Rhapsody and Prophecy, respectively). Here are my pint-sized reviews of each (free of major spoilers, te prometo)
Rhapsody begins with a prologue that I encourage you all to just grit your teeth and bear. Just pretend they're both a couple of years older, and it won't feel so wrong...and once you've accepted it, you get to amuse yourself trying to figure out where the two characters are hiding in the main storyline (the time travel makes this exercise much more fun). Anyway, you're then introduced to the High Queen of Mary Sues herself, Rhapsody. Despite this status, however, I personally didn't find her too annoying... I actually have a pretty high tolerance for Mary Sues, so long as they're canon, they're not horribly unrealistically young, I'm not forced to read pages and pages about their wardrobe, and the phrase "amethyst orbs" never appears where "funny purply eyes" would work just as well. So sue me (haha I maded a pun!), but I really like Rhapsody. Achmed and Grunthor are the co-stars, and they're both pretty cool and provide an excellent foil for Rhapsody's sunshine-and-butterflies outlook on life. Anyway...the book took a little while to get into, for me, but...
I enjoyed Prophecy a great deal more, for several reasons:
1) I knew the main characters and was already attached to them going in.
2) Even though Rhapsody ascends to even greater heights of Suedom, she does so by picking up the fun Sue!Traits, like the sudden ability to remain calm and formulate snarky comments in the face of great danger.
3) Ashe. I like Ashe, because the clues to figuring him out are scattered all through the two books. I read a review that commented that Ashe, with his amalgam of inheritances and talismans and whatnot, was basically some kid's crazy D&D character, and I'll concede that... but goshdarnit I'd follow that campaign. Adorableness+100. (I'm not a gamer; did I do that correctly?) Just forgive him his rather disturbing entrance in Rhapsody (I personally paused to award him the "WORST-PICK-UP-LINE-EVARR!!!11!!" award, but then I decided to rescind it when I remembered Babbling Chronicles). In fact, I forgive Ashe pretty much everything except for his hair. (It didn't work for Edward Cullen, sweetheart, it's not gonna work for you, either.)
4) Large portions of this book were basically a tribute to every hopeless romantic out there. I count myself an active soldier in that vast legion o' sappiness, which means I "Squee"ed more times than I am entirely proud of.
This final point is also my biggest issue with the book, oddly enough. To quote myself from an earlier aim conversation, "I'm fine with [not too explicit] sex scenes, but I like them to have a point. I like them to indicate a change in a relationship, or at least a dramatic change in a state of mind or circumstance." If nothing but your outfit changes from one day to the next, I really don't need to know what the two of you decided to do differently the second time around. KTHNXBAI. Also, I like my prose in romantic interludes to be a charming lavender. This teetered on plum. Still, I found the book gripping, with plenty of bits that I went back to read and smile over even after I finished and the suspense was gone. I gulped down all 480 pages in about 24 hours (which included a decent amount of time away from the book, actually), and that's the mark of a good read if anything is, IMHO.
Ok, I apologize. Those weren't really pint-sized. Quarts, at least. Liters, even. Anyway...
Lyrics o' The Day! I haven't actually assigned this song to any characters yet, but I like chunks of the lyrics, so feel free to add your two cents:
In Pieces by Linkin Park
Telling me to go
But hands beg me to stay
Your lips say that you love
Your eyes say that you hate
There's truth in your lies
Doubt in your faith
What you build you lay to waste
There's truth in your lies
Doubt in your faith
All I've got's what you didn't take
[Chorus]
So I, I won't be the one
Be the one to leave this
In pieces
And you
You will be alone
Alone with all your secrets
And regrets
Don't lie
[End Chorus]
You promise me the sky
Then toss me like a stone
You wrap me in your arms
And chill me to the bone
There's truth in your lies
Doubt in your faith
All I've got's what you didn't take
[Chorus x2]
Sooo...I just finished the first two books in Elizabeth Haydon's "Symphony of Ages" trilogy (Rhapsody and Prophecy, respectively). Here are my pint-sized reviews of each (free of major spoilers, te prometo)
Rhapsody begins with a prologue that I encourage you all to just grit your teeth and bear. Just pretend they're both a couple of years older, and it won't feel so wrong...and once you've accepted it, you get to amuse yourself trying to figure out where the two characters are hiding in the main storyline (the time travel makes this exercise much more fun). Anyway, you're then introduced to the High Queen of Mary Sues herself, Rhapsody. Despite this status, however, I personally didn't find her too annoying... I actually have a pretty high tolerance for Mary Sues, so long as they're canon, they're not horribly unrealistically young, I'm not forced to read pages and pages about their wardrobe, and the phrase "amethyst orbs" never appears where "funny purply eyes" would work just as well. So sue me (haha I maded a pun!), but I really like Rhapsody. Achmed and Grunthor are the co-stars, and they're both pretty cool and provide an excellent foil for Rhapsody's sunshine-and-butterflies outlook on life. Anyway...the book took a little while to get into, for me, but...
I enjoyed Prophecy a great deal more, for several reasons:
1) I knew the main characters and was already attached to them going in.
2) Even though Rhapsody ascends to even greater heights of Suedom, she does so by picking up the fun Sue!Traits, like the sudden ability to remain calm and formulate snarky comments in the face of great danger.
3) Ashe. I like Ashe, because the clues to figuring him out are scattered all through the two books. I read a review that commented that Ashe, with his amalgam of inheritances and talismans and whatnot, was basically some kid's crazy D&D character, and I'll concede that... but goshdarnit I'd follow that campaign. Adorableness+100. (I'm not a gamer; did I do that correctly?) Just forgive him his rather disturbing entrance in Rhapsody (I personally paused to award him the "WORST-PICK-UP-LINE-EVARR!!!11!!" award, but then I decided to rescind it when I remembered Babbling Chronicles). In fact, I forgive Ashe pretty much everything except for his hair. (It didn't work for Edward Cullen, sweetheart, it's not gonna work for you, either.)
4) Large portions of this book were basically a tribute to every hopeless romantic out there. I count myself an active soldier in that vast legion o' sappiness, which means I "Squee"ed more times than I am entirely proud of.
This final point is also my biggest issue with the book, oddly enough. To quote myself from an earlier aim conversation, "I'm fine with [not too explicit] sex scenes, but I like them to have a point. I like them to indicate a change in a relationship, or at least a dramatic change in a state of mind or circumstance." If nothing but your outfit changes from one day to the next, I really don't need to know what the two of you decided to do differently the second time around. KTHNXBAI. Also, I like my prose in romantic interludes to be a charming lavender. This teetered on plum. Still, I found the book gripping, with plenty of bits that I went back to read and smile over even after I finished and the suspense was gone. I gulped down all 480 pages in about 24 hours (which included a decent amount of time away from the book, actually), and that's the mark of a good read if anything is, IMHO.
Ok, I apologize. Those weren't really pint-sized. Quarts, at least. Liters, even. Anyway...
Lyrics o' The Day! I haven't actually assigned this song to any characters yet, but I like chunks of the lyrics, so feel free to add your two cents:
In Pieces by Linkin Park
Telling me to go
But hands beg me to stay
Your lips say that you love
Your eyes say that you hate
There's truth in your lies
Doubt in your faith
What you build you lay to waste
There's truth in your lies
Doubt in your faith
All I've got's what you didn't take
[Chorus]
So I, I won't be the one
Be the one to leave this
In pieces
And you
You will be alone
Alone with all your secrets
And regrets
Don't lie
[End Chorus]
You promise me the sky
Then toss me like a stone
You wrap me in your arms
And chill me to the bone
There's truth in your lies
Doubt in your faith
All I've got's what you didn't take
[Chorus x2]